What reasons do parents think about when selecting a school for their children when they move abroad? Are they similar reasons for why teachers choose to work at an international school abroad as well?  There are many different kinds of international schools and they are all in different situations.  How important is finding out about how well the international school provides or has access to qualified teachers who cater to students with special needs?  It could be beneficial to ask these types of questions at your interview, before you make any big decisions to move or choose an international school at which to work.  So, how do you choose the right international school for your children to attend or for you to work at?  In this blog series, we will discuss the Tips for Selecting an International School.

Tip #12 – Is the school parent-friendly?

It is essential that the international school you are considering (whether for work or for your child’s education) communicates effectively with parents. Keeping parents well-informed about school policies, events, and developments ensures they feel more at ease, especially when unexpected changes occur at the school.

Some might argue that parents at international schools are more, if not much more, invested in what happens at their child’s school compared to others. While most international schools hold two parent-teacher conferences per year, these meetings often last as little as 20 minutes—hardly enough time to cover everything you’d like to discuss.

However, in an international school setting, you may find yourself meeting with parents more frequently than just during these scheduled conferences. Many international school parents request additional meetings before or after school to “catch up” on their child’s progress and share updates from home. While these extra meetings can be beneficial for everyone involved, it’s wise to ensure they don’t become too frequent. You don’t want to find yourself constantly arranging extra meetings! Some international school parents, especially those with a stay-at-home spouse, might have plenty of time to meet with you. I once worked with a teacher who refused to give out his email address to parents for this reason. While email communication is often an efficient way to stay in touch, some parents might take advantage of having direct access to your inbox.

Many international schools provide an online, password-protected portal for parents to stay informed and up to date with school news. These platforms are a great resource for sharing information, including newsletters, photos, videos, and curriculum updates. Having a central hub for communication helps parents access the information they need whenever they want.

Even when a school has an effective communication system in place, there will always be some parents who don’t engage. Communication is a two-way street, and some parents may have other priorities or simply don’t utilize the tools provided. Recently, we had a parent come in, expressing frustration about not knowing what their child was learning. When we asked if they had been using the online parent portal, they admitted they hadn’t even looked at it.

So, how parent-friendly is your international school?

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Have a specific international school in mind that you are thinking of applying to? Check out our “Where our Members have worked” page and start contacting some of our members who know about the international school you are interested in knowing more about. Our 30000 members currently work at (or have worked at in the past) 1200+ different international schools.  Feel free to send them a private message related to finding out more about how parent-friendly their international school is.

Furthermore, we have a comment topic section that is for parents to fill out or for teachers to share more information about how parent-friendly their international school is.  It is called: PARENTS ONLY – General comments from parents of students that go to this school.  Here are a few comments that have been submitted in that section:

“At the old school in Tay Ho, VAIS, many parents withdrew their kids due to complaints that the Korean CEO who decided he was qualified to teach TOEFL prep classes so he could save on a qualified teacher, would openly cuss the students out in Korean during class and many students complained the class was more a Korean discussion class than an English one. He does not manage those classes any longer and thankfully so.” – Vietnam American International School (131 Total Comments)

“As a teacher/parent, I felt my kids had a solid group of other teachers’ kids to hang out with. There is a solid community feel in general and it is a welcoming atmosphere.” – Anglo-American School of Sofia (90 Total Comments)

“Decisions made at the school are mostly knee-jerk reactions, and seem not to have a lot of fore-thought. This results in confusion and frustration, with parents, students and staff unclear where the boundaries are.” – Oeiras International School (224 Total Comments)